Biography
Casey Diers... grew up in Fremont, Nebraska with parents Brad and Cindy Diers. He was raised on an operational family-owned farm just outside of Fremont. He attended school at the local Fremont Public School District. In his youth he was a member of many organizations including Boy Scouts of America, Demolay International, and his church youth group. In 7th grade, he joined a touring youth vaudeville troupe called Zoe.
High School
In the fall of his first year at Fremont High School he joined the Drama Club and began working on shows soon after. His first theatrical production positions were the spot light operator for the shows Meet Me in St. Louis and Babes in Arms, the fall of 2000. The following summer he continued his service to Zoe by joining its larger counterpart, Spoudazo.
In the fall of 2001, after serving as light-board operator for The Miracle Worker, he produced his first lighting design for the show Rowan and Martin's Laugh In for his High School Drama Club; later that year he also produced a lighting design for the musical Lil Abner, performed by the Fremont High School Music Department. He also accepted a position as an electrician for the local production company the Fremont Midland Entertainment Series and took over as president of his church youth group. By the end of his sophomore year he had been inducted into the International Thespian Society and adopted the position of Fremont High Drama Department's Electric Shop Foreman, a position he would hold for the remaining 3 years of his high school career. He became the stage manager for Spoudazo following his sophomore year of high school, also a position he would hold for the remaining 3 years of his eligibility with the group.
His junior year of high school, 2002-2003, he was asked by the Nebraska State Thespian Society to design the 2003 all-state musical Godspell. Additionally, he produced a lighting design for the Fremont High School Drama Department's two shows: A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Good Doctor. Casey also produced a lighting design for and acted as a member of the ensemble for the music department's musical Guys and Dolls. He also held his first position on the electrics crew at University Nebraska-Lincoln for the show Floyd Collins. At the end of his junior year of high school, he received the 2002-2003 Thespian Troupe 886 Outstanding Technician Award in addition to induction into the National Honor Society and the Spanish National Honor Society.
In his senior year of high school, 2003-2004, Casey produced a lighting design for two of his high school drama department's shows: Flowers for Algernon and Audience. That year he also produced a lighting design for and held the role of Olin Britt in the music department's musical The Music Man. In addition to serving as the Vice-President of the Fremont High School Drama Club, he also began attending Fremont Midland Lutheran College part time taking a class in technical theatre. Work on productions at Midland Lutheran College included sound-board operator for The Laramie Project, as well as an electrician for that and other shows that season. Casey also worked as the drummer for a local music group "The September Project" performing throughout the school year, often several times a week, traveling to cities within a hundred mile radius, and joined the group in the studio in the winter of 2003 as the drummer and co-producer their debut album, Let Yourself Go. Later that year Casey toured with the group playing shows in Nebraska, Wyoming, and Colorado. During his senior year of high school, he received a number of scholarships and awards including the 2004 Nebraska State Thespian Technical Theatre Design Scholarship and the Thespian Troupe 886 Honor Thespian Award.
College
After graduating with honors from Fremont High School in the spring of 2004, he moved to Lincoln, Nebraska where he attended University of Nebraska-Lincoln's, Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film majoring in Theatre Technology. In his first year at UNL, he served two consecutive semesters on the Dean's List of the Hixson-Lied College of Fine and Performing Arts. That year he also became involved with the student run production company Theatrix, for which he was: master electrician for an original movement piece titled Kusari, stage manager for Necessary Targets, and lighting designer for The Baby Dance. He was also hired by the university as a staff electrician for the main stage shows: Medea, Woyzeck, House of Blue Leaves, Much Ado About Nothing, and Voice of the Prairie. Additional work on these productions included serving as a member of the run crew for House of Blue Leaves, assistant master electrician for Much Ado About Nothing, and sound-board operator for Voice of the Prairie. In the spring of 2005, Casey received The Theatrix Service Award as well as The Eunice Vivian Peterson Memorial Scholarship.
Casey joined the Shawnee Theatre of Greene County, Indiana as resident light and sound designer for their 2005 season where he designed: How The Other Half Loves, Wait Until Dark, Who's On First, Fallen Angels, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), and The Murder Room as well as the company's two children shows.
Following his summer season in Indiana, Casey returned to University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film where in the fall of 2005 he was asked to join the Theatrix Executive Board as the undergraduate designer representative. He was the Lighting designer for Black Angel produced by Theatrix as wells as Iphigenia produced by Doane College in Crete, Nebraska. He was also master electrician for the main-stage productions of Wonder of The World and Wiley and The Hairy Man. This season the UNL School of Music hired Casey to be the master electrician for their 2 productions of the operas The Magic Flute and Cinderella. He remained on the university as a staff electrician for all five of the main stage shows: Wonder of the World, The Seagull, Wiley and the Hairy Man, The Learned Ladies, and Fire in the Mirrors.
For the summer of 2006 Casey joined the Theatre West Summer Repertory in Scottsbluff, Nebraska as the company lighting designer, producing designs for their productions of A Chorus Line, The Rainmaker, and The Wizard of Oz.
Following the 2006 summer season, Casey moved to Chicago, IL where he began attending The Theatre School at DePaul University. He began working on DePaul's productions that fall when he was the Assistant Lighting Designer for No Exit/Bobby Gould in Hell, where he assisted lighting designer Chris Burpee. Additionally, he was hired by the Merle Reskin Theatre as a House Master Electrician. This position allowed him to work over-hires in the space including The 2006 Jeff Award Ceremony and a standup performance by Louis Black. In the spring he began working on the schools productions in the main-stage space where he was the Master Electrician for The BFG and The Trial. In the spring of 2007 Casey was awarded a contract by Glitterati Productions to produce a lighting design for the Chicago Premiere of Ken Ludwig's Moon Over Buffalo which ran at The Theatre Building Chicago from March 12, 2007 and ran for 20 weeks.
For the summer of 2007 Casey then accepted an internship with Lookingglass Theatre Company in their lighting department including hang responsibilities as well as maintenance and board-op responsibilities. Casey continued holding the position of House Master Electrician at the Merle Reskin Theatre, and he also worked on their rebuild of the entire fly system with all new hardware, rebuilt and rigged entirely in-house. He also continued working over-hires including light hangs and strikes at the Marriott in Lincolnshire, The Court Theatre, and Lookingglass Theatre Company.
The following fall, Casey produced a lighting design for The Bald Soprano, produced by The Theatre School, and Translations (Jeff Recommended) produced by Caffeine Theatre. Casey was also the master electrician for the Porchlight Musical Theatre production of Phantom (Jeff Recommended). Following his work on Translations, Casey was asked back by Caffeine Theatre to design their production of Like the Moon Behind the Clouds, a world-premiere by local Chicago playwright Donald Gecewicz in the sprint of 2008. And shortly thereafter designed The Martian Chronicles, produced by the Lincoln Square Theatre. Back at DePaul, Casey designed a studio production of Edward Albee's The Goat as well as assistant lighitng designed two Theatre School shows: Machinal and Kosi-Dasa, where he assisted lighting designer Chris Binder.
In the summer of 2008, Casey was asked back to Lookingglass as the assistant master electrician for Lookingglass Alice, which was back for another summer run. Additionally he designed David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross in the play's very own back yard, Chicago's north side Redtwist Theatre. Also that summer, Casey began work with lighting designer James F. Ingalls as assistant lighting designer for Frank Galati's Kafka on the Shore at Steppnwolf Theatre Company.
Upon returning to DePaul for his Senor and final year, Casey created lighting for the Tennessee Williams classic A Streetcar Named Desire directed by Damon Kiely. Continuing his work with Mr. Ingalls, Casey traveled to Paris, where he assisted Jim in reopening Tristan et Isolde at the Paris National Opera at Bastille, and returned home quickly to assist him again on György Kurtág Kafka Fragments which toured through New York City's Gerald W. Lynch Theater, Los Angeles' Disney Hall, and UC Berkeley's Cal Performance. He also produced designs for Alice in Wonderland directed by Sean Graney and produced by The Theatre School, Design for Living produced by First Folio Theatre, both The Changeling and Tallgrass Gothic for Caffeine Theatre, and Sunday in the Park with George produced by Big Noise Theatre. Casey also was the master electrician for Our Town at Lookingglass, and assistant lighting designer for The Lieutenant of Inishmore at Northlight Theatre.
In June of 2009, Casey graduated Cum Laude from DePaul University with A B.F.A. in Lighting Design from The Theatre School at DePaul University.
Beyond
Immediately after graduation Casey embarked on lighting design full time, designing One Night Stand for Lights Out Theatre and Ten Square coproduced by MPAACT and Pegasus Players. Later that fall Casey designed Ambrose Bierce for the Lincoln Square Theatre
Casey had a busy spring of 2010. He designed I Hate Hamlet, First Words with MPAACT, Songs for a Future Generation, What Once We Felt with About Face Theatre, Wild Nights with Emily for Caffeine Theatre, was the Associate lighting designer on TimeLine Theatre's The Farnsworth Invention, Tad in the 5th City with MPAACT, On Golden Pond, and was the associate lighting designer for War with the Neuts. That summer Casey reproduced the lighting for Caffine's Theatre on the Lake remount of Under Milkwood and recreated a dance for the Joffrey Ballet's remount of Pretty Ballet. The following fall, Casey got married to the wonderful Jenny Cary Diers. He also helped the lighting desginer James F. Ingalls prepare for the Lincoln Center's european tour of Kafka Fragments which toured to London, Brussels and Rome. Returning to his design work, Casey designed Zulu Fitz for MPAACT theatre as well as Boojum produced by Caffeine Theatre and Chicago Opera Vanguard at the Storefront Theatre.